PEDREGAL, Shales

TERTIARY (Eocene?, middle Oligocene)

State of Falcón, Venezuela

Author of name: R. L. Marston, 1922 (private map).

Original reference: R. A. Liddle, 1928, p. 247.

Original description: ibid.

The type locality of the Pedregal shales is in the two bends of Río Pedregal south of the town of the same name. Liddle (1928, p. 247) describes blackish gray gypsiferous shales, hard, compact, greenish sandstones and a few limestone beds, which at that time he correlated with the Eocene Paují shales.

Senn (1935, p. 72 and 1940, p. 1580) emphasized a middle Oligocene age equivalent to Pecaya shales (see). However, petroleum geologists have since shown that the type Pedregal outcrops belong to the Pedregoso formation overlying the Pecaya. Since the changes of correlation might be confusing, it is suggested, that the name Pedregal be abandoned as a formation name in Falcón.

G. D. Johnson